DOUGLAS M. PARKER is an award-winning playwright and lyricist. His works include the musical, "Life on the Mississippi" (book and lyrics), based on Mark Twain's classic autobiographical coming-of-age tale; "BESSIE: The Life and Music of Bessie Smith," based on the rise and fall of the great American blues singer; "Thicker Than Water," a drama based on the Andrea Yates tragedy; "Declarations," a Young Audience historical drama drawn from the letters of John and Abigail Adams from their earliest courtship through the summer of 1776; and "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed," a Young Audience comedy based on Mark Twain's true, humorous memoir of his time as a lieutenant in the Confederacy's least accomplished, most forgotten regiment. He can be reached at MonologueFrog@gmail.com.